


In My Nature

by Wonheonie



Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Angst, Domestic Violence, Drama, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Fluff, Multi, Physical Abuse, Possible Character Death, Supernatural AU - Freeform, Werewolf AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-05
Updated: 2017-11-04
Packaged: 2019-01-29 15:10:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12633666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wonheonie/pseuds/Wonheonie
Summary: She left to protect them and the secret they kept, but now she's back and she needs them to protect her.“It’s in my nature to be kind, gentle and loving. But when it comes to protecting my friends, my family, and my heart do not trifle with me for I am also the most powerful and relentless creature you will ever come to know.”





	1. Prologue

Where had that come from? Why did she say that? “Yeseol are you crazy? Do you want to die?” she thought to herself. Because that’s exactly what was going to happen if she didn’t shut the fuck up. But she didn’t stop, she couldn’t stop. Years of holding her tongue, being afraid, and suffering alone had caused her to snap.

 

“Fuck you, you pig” she fired as she drew her hand back, landing a harsh slap against his cheek before she could even think about stopping herself. It was as if she couldn’t stop the vitriol from flying off her tongue. She’d finally had enough.

 

As good as the slap felt to her, it garnered no response from him. He didn't even flinch, instead he stared down at her until she had finished her tirade. His silence was more terrifying than any of the times he had yelled at her. When he finally spoke he did so with such eerie calm sending the most foreboding of shivers down her spine.

 

“You stupid bitch” he muttered, sounding almost blasé as he rubbed at the red mark on his jaw. “You really shouldn’t have done that” he followed up with a smirk.

 

Yeseol’s cheek was on fire, her body hurled to the other side of the room from the sheer force of his blow. Backed into a corner, shielding her head, she prepared for the next blow. She knew this would happen after what she had done, but she couldn’t muster up even the smallest bit of regret.

 

He stalked toward her, a lion starved, murder in his eyes and dinner inches in front of him, and she swelled with pride. She had finally stuck up for herself and if that meant she was about to die for it then at least she had stood her ground.

 

Her teeth gnashed together as he grabbed her jaw, lifting her up to deliver a harsh punch to her stomach. She fell to the ground with a ‘hrmph’, holding her stomach and gasping for breath.

 

It went on like this for the next five or ten minutes. Picking her up only to strike her down again. Eventually he got bored, going from jungle cat hunting his prey to merely playing with it.

 

Yeseol had stopped trying to run from him, too weak from the torment to even move. Fingernails dug into her scalp as he grabbed her hair, twisting it around his fingers, forcing her to look at him. With a resigned, hollow look in his eyes, he delivered the last punch and Yeseol’s world went dark.

 

 

She shut the medicine cabinet with a quiet ‘click’ hoping he didn’t hear. She gathered the last of her belongings into the duffle bag and slid it back in its place under the bed. Pulling on her robe, she shuffled downstairs to make breakfast.

 

Waking up that night month ago, swollen, battered, and bruised, part of her almost wished she hadn’t woken up at all. She was beat down, physically, mentally, emotionally. There she was laying on the cold floor of his office where he had left her after beating her unconscious. She was nothing to him, nothing but a rag doll he could toss around like garbage and use however he pleased.

 

She hadn’t wanted to wake up, but since she had, she decided this was the end. She was going to get out of this house and away from Jiyoung if it was the last thing she did. She washed herself up and started to think up an escape plan.

 

Jiyoung was powerful and had more people working for him and in his debt then she even knew about. Getting away from him wouldn’t be easy. She wasn’t even allowed to leave the house unguarded.

 

She hadn’t been able to sleep much since that night so she used that time to iron out the details of her strategy. She stayed quiet and docile, remaining on Jiyoung’s good side.

 

“Jiyoung-ssi?” she said across the table.

 

He looked up from the paper, raising his eyebrows at her in silent acknowledgement.

 

“There are some things I need. Would it be possible for me to make a trip to the store this afternoon? I will make sure to have dinner ready before you get home.”

 

“Fine, don't make any trouble” he said. “And take one of the guards”

 

She had seen that coming and had already accounted for that in her plan.

 

“Thank you” she said, smiling to herself in victory, hoping this afternoon would bring her another.

 

 

Sliding into the back seat of the town car, her guard shut the door, climbed into the driver’s seat, heading toward the city. They went to a few stores and she picked up a few odds and ends before they headed to the final destination.

 

They entered the grocery store under the guise of picking up some ingredients to make Jiyoung’s favorite meal for dinner. Yeseol piled the shopping cart full of groceries with her guard never more than a few feet behind her. They were heading to the check out when she decided now was the moment to make her escape.

 

“Uhm, do you know if they have a restroom here?” she asked her guard.

 

“I have no idea. Can’t you wait until we get back to the house?”

 

“No! That’s so unhealthy. Plus I really need to go. Like right now” she emphasized, bouncing from one foot to the other.

 

“Okay well let’s pay first and then I will take you………”

 

She handed him a fifty dollar bill.

 

“Here just pay for the groceries and load them up while I use the restroom. It will be quicker and then we can leave”

 

“I’m supposed to escort you everywhere” he said with a serious tone.

 

“For christ’s sake I just need to pee. Are you going to watch me change my tampon too or…….”

 

“Okay okay okay” he screamed horrified. “Just hurry up”

 

She thanked him and headed toward the back of the store to the restrooms. When the guard's focus turned to the groceries instead of her, she snuck back toward the front of the store. The car was parked at the curb outside. She grabbed the door handle, sounding the car alarm in the process.

 

“Shit shit shit” she internally yelled. How could she have forget about the damn car alarm. Looking back at the store she saw her guard weaving his way through all the customers trying to get to the exit. She grabbed her duffle from the backseat and took off down the sidewalk, cutting over to an alley as he barreled through the door.

 

Boots pounding against the pavement and curses spilling from his lips as he chased her down the alley and across the next block. She saw the sign for the subway about 500 ft up ahead. Siphoning the last bit of energy she had she sprinted toward the subway station. Hightailing it down the stairs and onto the train car, she turned in time to see him coming down the stairs after her. At the last minute the car doors closed and she released her breath.

 

 

The sun was setting and a breeze moved in, carrying the salty sea air up the side of the mountain and down into the forest. Leaves crunched under her shoes as she continued her trek deeper into the woods, one destination in mind.

 

Home. Well, not her home but the only home with the only family she had ever considered real. She was going home to them. It was one of the longest days she could remember and it was getting darker and colder by the minute. The only thing that kept her moving forward was the thought of the seven boys she would soon see.

 

It had been five years since Yeseol had been back here but she still knew the way like the back of her hand.

 

She climbed over the decades old stump and made her way up the hill lined with miles of large oaks. She was more than half way and nothing was going to stop her now.

 

A loud growl stopped her in her tracks. She found herself face to face with a set of piercing eyes and a muzzle releasing breath visible in the cold air.

 

The wolf was about 100 ft in front of her, staring her down. Her alert and panic soon turned to relief when she noticed the golden brown fur and intense eyes. Eyes that she would recognize anywhere.

 

Alleviated, she sighed stepped forward. The wolf released another loud growl followed by a few snarls as the two began to circle each other. One on the defense and another trying to calm the other’s temper.

 

“It’s okay. It’s me. Don’t you recognize me?” Yeseol questioned.

 

In the next second Yeseol was on the ground, the wolf looming above her, teeth inches from her face as he snapped his jaw, teeth clenching.

 

Finally looking into her eyes, the wolf released a confused whimper and immediately backed down.

 

She watched as the wolf transformed and took the shape of a familiar boy. A boy she knew better than anyone else in the world.

 

“Yeseol?” he said as he rushed toward her. He stopped a few feet away, reaching up to run a hand over her cheek as if to make sure she was real.

 

“Seol-ah” he breathed out before pulling her into a crushing hug.

 

She released the breath she was holding, hugging him back. She circled her hands around his waist, and up his back to curl around the tops of his shoulders as she hung on like her life depended on it.

 

All the emotions from the past 24 hours -- the past five years really-- came flooding out with one tight embrace from him. The dam had finally broken and she shook with tears as he held her tighter.

 

“Hoseok,” she sobbed, the only word she was able to choke out.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I am there waiting, watching, keeping to the shadows. But when you need me, I’ll step out of the shadows and protect what’s mine.”

“Papa, no!” Her voice rang out as she fled into the forest.

 

“Please, Papa don’t do this,” she pleaded when she stumbled on a fallen log. Her father loomed over her with a vacant look in his eyes and whiskey on his breath.

 

“Come here, you little wench,” he seethed, picking her up by her collar to slap her across the face with enough force to knock her back to the ground.

 

“I said GET UP!” he bellowed, once again reaching for her.

 

Before he could grab her again, a fierce growl pierced the veil of the otherwise still night, stopping her father dead in his tracks. Out of the shadows stalked the largest wolf she had ever seen--fur as black as onyx and eyes shimmering like rubies.

 

Frozen in shock, although surprisingly not fear, she layed there on the ground as the wolf approached her. Upon reaching her, it used its muzzle to nudge her and helping her sit upright, before turning around to stare down her father. She could feel that the wolf was protecting her, but she didn’t know why. Something about it made her feel innately safe, even as she watched it bare its canines and release a sinister growl from its gut.

 

Her father, dumb as he was, wasn’t dumb enough in his drunken state to try and take on a wolf, let alone the twenty or so more that began to emerge from the tree line to surround her like a protective force field.

 

The obsidian wolf in front of you let out another growl before snapping his jaw in the direction of her father. Taking the hint, her father turned on his heels.

 

“I never wanted her anyway,” he huffed, over his shoulder as he left his only child in the woods alone with a pack of wolves.

 

 

Hoseok couldn’t believe Yeseol was really here. He hadn’t seen her in years, and had never realized how empty his arms had been until she was filling them once again.

His heart had broken when he had to watch her leave. He’d wanted nothing more than to chase after her, but they both knew what would happen with his curse if he stayed away from their ‘hallowed’ land for too long a time.

 

But why was she here? And what was she doing roaming the woods after sun down? And why had she broken down as soon as he said her name? But before he could ask, he realized there was something a bit more prominent he needed to see too as he looked down at his stark naked human form, a blush creeping up his neck to his cheeks.

 

After another tight squeeze and a hush to her whimpers, he untangled himself from her.

 

 

He was warm. Almost too warm. Almost. Yeseol clung to Hoseok, burying her head in his firm, chest as she let the past five years of unshed tears wrack through her body in loud sobs.

 

She hadn’t felt safe in years--terrified, hopeless, desolate, and angry, but never safe. But now, in the middle of the night in a dark forest and in the arms of a werewolf of all things, she felt entirely safe.

 

As her tears ceased, Hoseok released his grip on her while letting out an awkward cough, scratching the back of his neck nervously.

 

Yeseol didn’t want to let go. She kept her arms locked around his waist, tilting her head back to stare at him inquisitively as he tried to escape her embrace.

 

“Seol-ah, hang on a second okay?” He said, finally prying her arms from around his middle and turning around to retreat behind a tree.

 

“H-hose…..” she began to holler after him, immediately realizing his hurry when she caught sight of his bare bottom as he made a beeline for the tree line.

 

Too little too late did she remember that Hoseok had been in wolf form when she showed up and had since been naked this whole time. She slapped her hands over her eyes. She’d be lying if she said she didn’t try to peek through her fingers to catch another glimpse of his prime backside.

 

 

After he managed to find the pile of clothes he’d carelessly discarded earlier that night before taking his wolf form, he made his way back to Yeseol. Upon reaching her, he found himself rubbing at the back of his neck again--a nervous habit of his--and looking everywhere but directly at the girl in front of him.

“Uh-hm, sorry about that. I couldn’t believe you were actually here and uhm I kind of forgot that uhm….” he had trouble getting the words out in his embarrassed state, almost choking on them when he finally dared to look Yeseol in the eyes.

 

Hoseok was always warm--a perk of being part wolf--but when he saw the blush overtaking Yeseol’s cheeks and the way she was shyly biting her bottom lip, he swore his temperature spiked by twenty degrees.

 

“What are you doing here Seol-ah? What’s wrong? Why were you crying?” Hoseok asked in one breath, desperate to relieve the tension but also to learn the truth of her sudden reappearance.

 

“I-I just missed you is all. I guess I didn’t realize how much until I actually saw you.” she lied, looking down, afraid that if she looked him in the eye he would see through her rouse.

 

A half-truth is what she would call it. She did, in fact, miss him and the others and their home an overwhelming amount, but it wasn’t the exact reason for her return or the crippling sobs she just let out.

 

When he saw her shiver, Hoseok remembered that, although it felt like the middle of summer to him, it was actually an autumn night and Yeseol was probably getting cold. Throwing an arm around her and picking up the duffle she had dropped on the ground, he steered them in the direction of home. The guys weren’t going to believe she was really here.

 

 

They were still a good twenty minutes away from the reservation that Yeseol and the pack called home. He used the time to fill her in on his and the other boy’s lives since she had left. When she asked why he had been in the woods so late, he explained that he was on his way back from patrol in town.

 

A couple of years back, a local gang of small time thieves had begun robbing the townspeople's homes and business, threatening the elderly and women if they refused to hand over what they had. By the time the pack learned of it, it had become so bad that they had no choice but to intervene--this was, after all, there home as well.

 

In order to protect the town and its people, the pack had to expose themselves as wolves, the very thing that had forced Yeseol to leave the town in the first place, Hoseok reminisced bitterly.

 

 

Yeseol’s father was the town drunk when they were growing up. He was a cruel man who blamed Yeseol for the death of her mother--a scar Yeseol always carried with her, knowing that she had caused her mother’s death in childbirth.

 

Hoseok still remembered the night Hyunwoo’s dad, the alpha of their pack, had brought her back to the reservation. Outsiders were strictly forbidden, but here’d been this beautiful, scrawny little girl with high cheekbones and sad eyes, clinging to their alpha’s pant leg. He’d fallen for her immediately. That night, Hyunwoo’s dad had announced to the pack that Yeseol would now be one of them and everyone was to treat and protect her as such.

 

Yeseol and the sons of the seven families in the pack had bonded straight away. All of them had been amazed at how resourceful, brave, and compassionate this young human girl was. Hoseok and the boys were supposed to protect her, but she’d ended up protecting them in most instances, whether protecting Changkyun from bullies on the playground or protecting the pack from her father.

 

Yeseol’s father had still been living in town and they would all see him around but he would just act as if he didn’t know her. During their senior year of high school, her father had gotten himself mixed up in illegal gambling and became indebted to a mob boss from the city. In order to clear his debt, he’d sold Yeseol to the boss.

 

He had sold his eighteen year old daughter to a mob boss.

 

Hoseok’s skin was crawling just recalling the fact. The day her father had come to take her away, the whole pack gathered around her, mirroring the night he’d first abandoned her. At first, Yeseol scoffed and cursed at her father, refusing to go with him. It wasn’t until he threatened to expose the pack that she finally agreed, much to Hoseok’s protest.

 

“Seol-ah, don’t do this, please,” He’d whispered.

 

“I have to, Hoseok. You and the pack rescued me and kept me safe, now it's my turn to do the same for you.”

 

“Seol-ah, please. I-I Seol-ah I……”

 

“It’s going to be okay, Seokkie” she had said, reaching up to caress his face soothingly before placing a chaste kiss to his cheek.

 

Hoseok’s heart had broken. He’d kept beating himself up for not telling her he loved her before she walked away for what could’ve been forever. He’d raged at the pack for not doing more to stop her from leaving and threatened to follow her, only to have been reminded of the consequences if he left.

 

The curse that had been placed on his pack years ago that made them werewolves was tethered to the land they lived on and, if one of the pack was to be away from their reservation for an extended amount of time, they would shift into their wolf form permanently. So, Hoseok had stayed, but his heart had never healed.

 

After a year, Hoseok had received the first of many postcards from Yeseol. In it, she’d reassured him that she was safe and conveyed how much she’d missed him and the others. It had been addressed from a P.O. Box in the city--he’d guessed it’d been to keep the man she was sold to from finding out of their correspondence. They’d written back and forth every month over the course of the following three years.

 

Hoseok had hoped that, after he’d written and told her of the pack’s exposure, she would have returned, since her father’s threat was null and void, but she didn’t. Not even when he’d written her of her father’s passing did she return and, for the past year, there had been utter silence from her, with all of Hoseok’s cards and letters receiving no reply.

 

 

Now, she was back and Hoseok was ecstatic, but more than that, he was wary. “What had finally brought her home?” he thought.

 

As much as he wanted to believe it was because she missed him, he wasn’t buying it. Something was off and he knew it. It wasn’t just a hunch either, the girl next to him wasn’t the same one he remembered from five years earlier. Sure, he wasn’t naive enough to think that she had been living a fairytale life with the mob boss--Jiyoung, as he had come to know him from her letters--but she’d always said he wasn’t that bad and that she was comfortable and healthy.

 

So, why was the once rambunctious, fearless, spit-fire girl he’d grown up with now so meek and scared? He couldn’t help but notice the way she kept looking around while walking, as if she was keeping an eye out for someone, or the way she flinched just the slightest bit--not enough that another human would notice--when he went to put his arm around her. When a branch snapped and she all but jumped out of her skin, he was certain something was very wrong.

 

“Seol-ah?”

 

“Hmmm?” she replied, looking up from under his arm.

 

Hoseok gulped, once again taken with the look Yeseol gave him and an overwhelming urge to fold her into his arms again and never let go wracked his body.

 

“Seol-ah, what’s……….” He was about to ask her why she was acting so anxious when they finally cleared the forest onto the reservation where they were met with six worried boys--most likely because Hoseok had taken way longer to return from patrol than was normal and they were about to come find him.

 

Changkyun was the first to notice Yeseol followed by the rest as they rushed to her side, a resounding “Noona! Seol-ah!” ringing out and Hoseok swallowed his question, shelving the discussion for another day.


End file.
